


Pieces Put Back Together

by bemynewobsession



Series: Fitzwells Scenes [4]
Category: Harlots (TV)
Genre: F/F, Internalized Homophobia, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-14
Updated: 2018-08-14
Packaged: 2019-06-27 13:11:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15686100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bemynewobsession/pseuds/bemynewobsession
Summary: The iconic scene from 2x04 as told from Isabella's point of view. (Not first person)





	Pieces Put Back Together

**Author's Note:**

> I was originally going to make this one two scenes as one fic as well but let's face it, this scene was too iconic to share the stage with any others.

“I have been in the guts of a Goddess. The celestial Ms. Wells.”

 

Isabella immediately had to reach for her cup of tea to keep from screaming. She didn’t know what to feel.

 

Betrayed? Charlotte had broken her only promise to her. _Jealous?_ The thought slipped unbidden into her mind. Perhaps it was a sickening mixture of both. Either way it was all she could do to not break a chair across Harcourt’s head as he spoke of his night with the girl.

 

“I’ve never met a harlot who enjoyed the act as much as the money that comes with it.”

 

~~_I want her to enjoy the act with me._ ~~

 

“It’s her job perhaps she’s just good at it.” She spat back at him as he moved closer. She couldn’t hide her heavy breathing that came involuntarily at her anger at both the Beast and Charlotte.

 

“Why does it disturb you so?” Her brother stroked her face as she tried to move away from his touch. She stood abruptly as she could not stand his vile touch a moment longer.

 

In her haste to get away, he seized her by the arm.

 

“Where are you going?” She was going to see Charlotte of course and he was catching her in more and more lies lately. She thought of what she could say that could anger him the most.

 

“You seem to think I have some sort of unnatural lust for Ms. Wells. Perhaps I should find out if you’re right.” She could sense the anger radiating from him, but she did not care. She had a courtesan to seek out.

 

There were guards at the doors of the Golden Square but of course a lady of her stature was let in immediately. She was alone in the house, Quigley and her girls had likely not yet returned from where they had stayed during the Pleasure Gardens.

 

Isabella sat alone on a chaise, contemplating what she was doing. What was she doing? Was it right to immediately approach and chastise Charlotte for breaking their promise? ~~Was she there seeking answers for her unnatural lust that made her no different than Harcourt?~~

 

Just as she thought she may leave, Quigley walked in accompanied by all her girls and Charlotte in tow.

 

Quigley addressed her immediately, but Isabella only had eyes for Charlotte. The girl was flustered at the sight of her. Not panicked exactly, but certainly taken aback by her presence.

 

Isabella looked back to Quigley.

 

“I came for a moment with Ms. Wells.” Quigley looked delighted at that. The viper of course still thinking that Charlotte was working for her to rise up in the ranks of Isabella’s peers.

 

“Ms. Wells’ time..comes at a price.” While Harcourt had seen to it that Isabella certainly had no money of her own, she still dressed in opulence.

 

Isabella took her hand and removed the diamond earring from her ear and set it on the table. Quigley of course inspected it immediately and Isabella held back her desire to roll her eyes at the She-Devil’s audacity to question its legitimacy.

 

Charlotte flashed a quick smile to her while Quigley’s attention was held on the earring. Isabella felt her heart flutter slightly.

 

As Quigley left, Charlotte immediately looked to her hands in guilt. Isabella’s anger came back at once.

 

“You promised.” Isabella spoke with a contained vitriol. She felt betrayed by Charlotte of course but she knew her true anger lie in the fact that the Beast had taken something she hadn’t realized she felt belonged to her.

 

“He paid me 100 guineas.” Now that response did raise her anger towards Charlotte. Her response was even more biting than her first words.

 

“Oh I should’ve known. A harlot can always be bought.” Charlotte had the decency to look pained at her words. Isabella felt bad for saying them immediately especially given Charlotte’s answer.

 

“My body yes, but not my mind.” Isabella could contain her hate towards her brother no longer.

 

“He takes everything that is mine and makes it his.” Charlotte studied her face curiously as she said this.

 

“I live in a chamber of mirrors and his is the only reflection I see.”

 

“Then you must shatter it.” Isabella could almost laugh at the way Charlotte made it sound so simple.

 

“I can’t.”

 

“You can.” Charlotte spoke with such surety. Isabella wished she had such optimism as she. She was also moving closer as she spoke the words. Isabella felt her heart rate pick up slightly. Charlotte continued on with her small speech.

 

“You locate a weakness and you press.” Weaknesses. Secrets. Was that all the women around Lydia Quigley knew of?

 

“Did you learn that from Ms. Quigley?”

 

Charlotte shook her head assuredly.

 

“She’s the only one I wish to break.”

 

Charlotte had an uncontained fire of hatred in her ~~gorgeous, soft~~ eyes as she spoke, Isabella decided immediately to forgive her. She really did need an ally if she was going to take Quigley down.

 

“Then how can I help?”

 

Charlotte seemed hesitant to say her next words. “If she wants me to get close to with your brother again…”

 

Isabella felt her heart break slightly at her words. Unfortunately, Charlotte was right. They needed to keep the facade up as long as possible.

 

She looked down for a moment to collect herself before speaking. “I understand.” She gulped nervously, dreading even considering that Charlotte may have to force herself through another encounter with the Beast.

 

When she looked back up, Charlotte was looking at her with a gaze she had seen her only direct towards potential culls. Isabella’s heart pounded in her chest. This girl was about to reduce her to a trembling mess with just a look.

 

“Is there anything else you want” Charlotte’s voice rasped in a register much lower than she had ever directed at Isabella.

 

Isabella felt her face flush and her mouth open and close in surprise, but no words would come out.

 

Charlotte tempted her further. Moving into Isabella’s space to brush up against her as she reached for Isabella’s earring that lay on the table.

 

“You already paid.” Charlotte looked her up and down as though she was going to take her then and there.

 

Isabella’s traitorous lips finally spoke only for her to stammer out “I..hav” She couldn’t escape Charlotte’s heady eyes long enough to muster up anything else to say. Her heart was racing too fast, her mind reeling with the thought of Charlotte touching her.

 

Charlotte was pressing in closer and Isabella was struck dumbly all of the sudden with the difference in height between them that she hadn’t fully appreciated before.

 

Charlotte leaned in and for the briefest of moments, Isabella’s eyes flitted to her perfect lips. She thought Charlotte was going to kiss her on the mouth. But she didn’t. And what she did almost felt worse.

 

Charlotte Wells leaned up right into the skin just under Isabella’s jaw and laid a teasing kiss that would be burned into Isabella’s mind for the rest of her life. She had never felt such a loving touch of anyone like that before. She felt undone and vulnerable by something as innocent as a kiss on the cheek.

 

Charlotte pulled away, giving Isabella a chance at a last longing glance at her lips. She kept her flirtatious and teasing gaze locked on Isabella, the unspoken offer of knowing her right here still hung between them in the air.

 

Isabella collected herself long enough to remember that she and Charlotte were trying to accomplish something other than simply looking at each other lustfully.

 

“My brother’s card party tomorrow. Two O’Clock. Bring the bitch.” She held Charlotte’s gaze for as long as she could while walking towards as Charlotte simply gave her another shit-eating grin.

 

That night as Isabella was getting ready for bed, she noticed her small hand mirror on her chest of drawers. She thought of what Charlotte had said. _“Then you must shatter it.”_

 

The mirror was a gift from her brother last year on her birthday. Isabella felt emboldened by Charlotte. She took the mirror and smashed it against the ground. As she looked upon the broken pieces on the floor, she felt something inside her piecing itself back together.

**Author's Note:**

> Isabella you useless repressed lesbian you.  
> Follow me at artemisodinson.tumblr.com


End file.
